Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Student Teaching: Teachers are Superheroes

This morning I felt like a superhero. I normally have a conference period first period, but the substitute for Tech Theatre was not there yet. So I walked across the hall, looked over the lesson plan, introduced myself to the students, and made it work. When the substitute finally made it, (she had the room number down wrong), I used that to help give examples of ways to use what happens around us to generate script ideas. Imagining stories I could create to explain the reason she was late. Some of them involved wrestling a bear, getting hit by a bus, and having a secret identity as a superhero.

During 4th Period I had a small victory. In general, I found that getting this group up on their feet to do a little group work at the beginning of class helps get out a lot of their jitters, focuses them on task, and gets them talking about what they are doing IN class. It's kind of awesome. But the real victory came when the girl from yesterday made an effort in class today. Being able to work with her friends to create a tableau put her in a good mood, so when she sat down to write, she asked for help. ASKED for help. The group she worked with on the tableau at the beginning of class helped give suggestions. I asked her questions to help her develop the exposition of her script. She had a support system. People that cared and wanted to help. I hope she will remember that when she goes home today...and when she comes to school tomorrow.

In my 6th Period Tech Theatre class, I did a little shuffle. New seating assignments for everyone. A little mischievous on my part. The front row has three seats. I put one of my most talkative students in between one of my most dedicated and hardest working students and a student who likes to sit in the back and work on assignments for other classes. Ah it worked like a charm. Neither of them want to be bothered, so I don't need to keep him in check now. They'll do it for me. :) When everyone got settled down, I asked if anyone liked their seat.

"No."

"Excellent."

I don't know if it was the new seats, or the way the activity engaged the students, or both...but the class was great today.

And I felt like for one day, I had super powers.

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